‘Eco-warriors’ start work after long wait
They call themselves the «peacemakers» of the countryside. They say they will be resolving differences between farmers and livestock breeders and will be mediating in problems. Fifteen years after they applied for the job back in 1992, their dream of entering the rural police force has finally come true. That they may have acquired a few gray hairs and extra kilos in the intervening years, and do not deny that their greatest incentive for joining the force is the permanent tenure that comes with the job, as most of them now have families, and the fact that they can stay close to home instead of having to move to some other part of the country. Shortly before they took up their posts, they said very few of them knew exactly what their duties would be once they donned their uniforms and turned up in the village square. Costas Voulgaris, 40, heads an association of all those who passed the entrance exams in 1993 and is expected to head the union to be set up by the members of this new «environmental police force.» He was quick to reply to criticism and taunts from those who refer to them beginning work after a 15-year delay. «For a number of years, the state has been deceiving us. We sat for exams, we passed and they criticized us. Now they say we are old and fat. It’s not our fault that we didn’t start this work until the age of 40. It is simply the rectification of an error. Even if we were 100 years old, they should still hire us,» he said. «I have worked as a truck driver, waiter, garbage collector. No work is to be sneered at when the need is there.» Voulgaris is to begin work in Leivadia, his hometown. «In the evenings, after the farmers turn on their irrigation systems, they find that people have stolen spare parts, things that take time and money to replace, That’s where I’ll be focusing my efforts.» In early August, Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras claimed that the force was ready for action. «We have made the necessary preparations,» he said, commenting on the re-establishment of the rural police force at the swearing-in of its leader Dimitris Nikolakopoulos. However, the 1,200 rural police officers who assumed their duties on August 16 were issued with work uniforms on loan from the air force. Four days before they went on duty, the force had no headquarters in several prefectures. Moreover, while provision has been made for the officers to bear arms, even those in charge of setting up and organizing the force say they have no idea when the equipment will be ready, nor how the officers will be trained to use it. As long as these questions go unanswered, those who claim the establishment of the force is an election gambit feel somewhat justified. After all it would not be the first time. And during the swearing-in ceremony, Polydoras announced a competition for the recruitment of 1,700 more rural officers, although these are to be recruited after 2009 for want of funds. The Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDKE), the Forestry Service and firefighters have claimed that setting up a rural police force will only serve to spread authorities for environmental protection even further. They wonder why resources have not been made available for municipal police forces or to fill vacant jobs but instead to set up a new force from scratch at great cost. Apparently there are about 4,500 vacant posts in the firefighting service, a vacuum that became only too evident this past summer. This figure is also that cited as the numbers that will be hired to staff the rural police. Meanwhile, only 75 forestry rangers were hired this year throughout the whole country.
